On 6 July, 2023, The MarTech Summit took place in Hong Kong, recognising the importance of staying ahead of the curve and navigating the challenges that come with a fast-paced and ever-changing environment. This year’s MarTech Summit Hong Kong boasted an exciting lineup of new speakers and a packed agenda, featuring Panel Discussions, Fireside Chats, Keynote Presentations & Breakout Roundtables.
We were thrilled to bring this event back to Hong Kong and received an enthusiastic response from over 200 attendees representing diverse industries locally and internationally. The summit was hosted at The Langham Hong Kong‘s Grand Ballroom, providing an elegant and sophisticated setting for our one-day event.
With a thoughtfully curated agenda, the summit offered insightful sessions on topics including Data-Driven Marketing, Cookieless Future, Gamification Marketing, Social Marketing, Digital Transformation, E-Commerce Marketing & Data Literacy. Also, there were ample invaluable networking opportunities for all MarTech enthusiasts throughout the day.
The summit showcased over 12 live sessions with more than 25 speakers, presenting a variety of formats such as keynote presentations, fireside chats, and panel discussions. To enhance the experience, we incorporated breakout sessions in the middle, including a private luncheon, two roundtables, and a private dinner. Each session included a Q&A segment, allowing our diverse audience ample opportunities for engaging discussions and meaningful insights to ponder.
In total, we had the privilege of hosting representatives from over 150 companies, including renowned names such as Shiseido, Starbucks, Schneider Electric, AIA, Estee Lauder, HSBC, Chanel, JP Morgan, Swiss Re, UBO, DBS, CLP, DFI, and many others! The diversity of industries represented at the summit also greatly enriched the learning and networking experiences.
Additionally, over 90% were in leadership positions and above. And more than 70% were from companies with a headcount of 1001+.
Summit Highlights
Our opening panel started the summit off with a talk about Conversational Marketing.
XingYu Chen, Hong Kong Taiwan IT Head & Business Information Security Leader from P&G, emphasised the importance of staying inspired and recognizing consumer needs & new technologies. “Consumer Understanding is the key, leveraging technologies and data is the how” said Xingyu.
Moving on, we had sessions about Data Literacy on how to Enable Teams to Read, Communicate and Harness Data for Marketing Efficiency. Leo Lau, Director, MarTech Lead Asia from Manulife said: “A culture and data-driven mindset is the most important, and it is usually easier said than done. It requires consistent practice to use data in daily operations. Well-defined and maintained data governance could help to make data more accessible and improve quality. Both can drive for a data citizen concept as promoted by some companies and organizations. However, data owners still have the CoE role to play in supporting other data citizens in advanced data usage.”
In the session on Metaverse, we had a poll question asking, “Does your company have plans to build a metaverse application or is it in your marketing plan?”
Over 70% answered ‘No plan to do’, and Chirag Desai, who is Head of IT Digital & Channels Solutions, The Hong Kong Jockey Club points out and said “Companies need to fully understand how they moved customers from offline to online (multi/omni) to “Phygital’ and the pain points that had to be overcome. If your customers are not engaging with your current omni and O2O experiences, you will lose them in the metaverse.”
One of our panels asked the following word cloud question to see our audience member’s views. And we saw that revenue is always one of the top measures in marketing metrics.
Alan To, who is Regional ESG Marketing Director: Asia, Pacific, Middle East & Africa from S&P Global Sustainable1 also encourage us to “Leverage on a seasoned topic /theme. Try multi channels, engage with sales. Have good metrics to tell your success stories.”
Another panel also spoke on Social Marketing, and discussed how to connect shifting customer values and behaviour to your business beyond profiting the brand “Customers behaviour and values are changing rapidly – we need as much data to understand these changes and quickly adapt our marketing activities to stay relevant – that is where an integrated MarTech stack become important.” said Desmond Phua, Head of Digital Platforms, Group Customer & Strategy, Home Credit Group
Last but least, MarTech topics must include a discussion about Digital Transformation! From the panel discussion of how to deal with today’s customers with yesterday’s technology, Howard Kwong, Chief Digital Officer from Prudential Hong Kong mentioned that “Don’t overthink things. Which is easier said than done. Technology is forever advancing, we are blessed, or cursed with an abundance of data so sometimes we will feel overwhelmed. So take a step back and go back to the basics and ask the fundamental questions. Why, Who, What, How.”
In conclusion, our summit witnessed exceptional engagement from our audience members, demonstrating their strong interest and active participation. The event served as a valuable platform for MarTech professionals, equipping them with insightful guidance and practical strategies to effectively navigate the evolving MarTech landscape. Furthermore, it successfully fostered a vibrant community of enthusiastic MarTech enthusiasts in Hong Kong, facilitating a robust exchange of knowledge and networking opportunities. We eagerly anticipate the opportunity to return and capitalise on the positive momentum generated by this event, further enhancing the value and impact of future summits.
Future Engagement
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all our partners and MarTech enthusiasts who joined us in a remarkable display of networking and learning at the summit.
To see our upcoming summits, including the rest of our 2023 Calendar, please visit: https://themartechsummit.com/events/
2023 APAC Summits:
➡️The Virtual MarTech Summit Vietnam: Livestream | 19 September
➡️The MarTech Summit Bangkok: In-Person | 18 & 19 October | Carlton Hotel Bangkok Sukhumvit
➡️The MarTech Summit Roundtable Singapore: In-Person | 25 October 2023
The MarTech Summit Team is thrilled to have had the opportunity to host such an exceptional and interactive gathering once again! Our online community engagement also reached a new height, check out the Summit Highlights on our LinkedIn!
To stay tuned and get involved with The MarTech Summit more, follow us on:
And join The MarTech Community on Slack!
By: Namsa Kang, July 2023
